The bad news is Quinn Hughes scored. The boxcar stats from Sunday's game against the Flames are bad enough, but the instant you look at the scoresheet, you know. Hughes rushing in to score late in a 5-1 game isn't a good sign. That he does it end-to-end with an assist from Kevin Lankinen is as bad as it gets.
I've mentioned before that one of the worst signs for the Canucks is when Hughes tries to do it all himself. He doesn't do that accidentally; he does it because he doesn't think he has a choice. And since we're talking about one of the highest hockey-IQ players in the league, that's worth paying attention to.
Beautiful goal. Terrible indicator.
Back when we did a preview of the season, we noted that the other teams in the division had shored themselves up. Vancouver's margins to succeed were smaller than ever, but certainly not impossible. The biggest danger was the thinness of talent at the top.
Vancouver has more top-end talent than enough of these teams to make the playoffs. But the game requires more than talent. The Canucks can have one or two things go wrong and still make it, so long as those things going wrong aren't one of three players. So we're ending up with Schrödinger's Playoffs, either making it or not, and we won't know which until we look.
So how did that go?
Okay, that wasn't exactly a difficult prediction. And even as easy as it was, I still got some of it wrong. The three players were, of course, Thatcher Demko, Quinn Hughes, and Elias Pettersson the Forward(tm). There have been mixed results, but that hasn't been where the most damage has been done.
Demko's injury is what it is, and no point going over that again. Hughes has missed substantial time - five complete games, parts of others - but that hasn't stopped him from leading the team in scoring again. Pettersson took a bit to get going, but he's been fine, even after being told he not only has to be a superstar scorer but also the only checking centre the Canucks have.
That third one's the indicator. Filip Chytil doesn't want to retire, but good grief, he should. We know you get paid a LOT, but there's a life after hockey, Filip. Another shock was Teddy Blueger playing in just two games, never to be seen again. The same can be said of Derek Forbort, but at least we only expected 60-ish games from him. But his absence is felt on the league's worst penalty kill.
One thing we aren't going to do is blame Pius Suter for getting paid. His two-year, $4.125 million per is an awful lot for a 40-point, middle-six centre. But boy, wouldn't that have been a better use of the money than signing winger Evander Kane?
Instead, what we get is the Jim Benning Era packed into two months, with increased desperation leading to increasingly desperate moves. Giving a younger player a shot is the kind of thing a team on the way up does, not one trying to stay afloat. Bringing in a guy who was cut from the frikkin' Maple Leafs to play as the second-line centre is pure desperation.
The pressure of keeping the best player in Vancouver Canucks history happy doesn't help, of course. But they haven't performed well under that pressure, either. Hack-comic-talking-about-airline-food levels of flopsweat, here.
Winning teams take risks, sure. But those risks are closer to betting on red at the roulette table, not praying #35 will somehow come through for you.
There was a risk in promoting Adam Foote to head coach. I think he'll be fine, but this is a team with so little margin for error that everything they did was a risk. The other option was Manny Malhotra, who is also untested at the NHL level, so it's not like they were playing it safe either way. I also don't think the fault lies with Foote, and really hope the team doesn't make him the fall guy.
This is about team construction. That goes right to Jim Rutherford and Patrik Allvin, with plenty of blame left over for team owner Francesco Aquilini.
Personally, I hate how this management team seems to negotiate. Obviously, I'm not in the room, and I haven't talked to either players or staff. My judgment is entirely based on what we all can see in public, and to me, that doesn't look good.
Right from the treatment of Bruce Boudreau to taking their players for granted, there has been an arrogance and recklessness at the top. I don't blame J.T. Miller for not getting along with Pettersson - nor do I blame Pettersson - but choosing him and completely ignoring Bo Horvat was alarming. Publicly insulting Brock Boeser after his 40-goal season, then leaving him to hang in negotiations, was bizarre.
When they kept Kevin Lankinen waiting, and waiting, and waiting, before finally signing him in late September to his first deal with the Canucks is typical of how they work, apparently. If you want to play in Vancouver, hey, great! We'll get back to you on that! We're going to play the field a little more before we get married, okay, sweetie?
The end result has been a team that feels like it's been forced on management instead of built by them. Rutherford seems frustrated that he can't simply offer to bury a player in the AHL if they don't sign. He and Allvin were surprised that the rising cap let teams keep their players, but forgot they could do that, too.
It was quite the weekend for Vancouver sports. The Goldeneyes kicked off their existence with an overtime win against their expansion rivals on Friday. The Whitecaps played one of the greatest games in Vancouver sports history, with an absolute rollercoaster of a game to stay alive in the MLS playoffs on Saturday.
The Canucks played a solid game against a good Dallas Stars squad, even though they lost. Then got stomped by one of the worst teams in the league, who had played in another city the night before. It, uh, it was a comedown.
The Canucks players have put in a lot of hard work. They really have. But on Sunday, they were outworked by what is now a higher-skilled team. Lankinen had an off night, and that wasn't nearly enough to cover for the mistakes made in front of him.
The return dates for Vancouver's missing players have been pushed back, with Nils Höglander looking like he'll be on the outside edge of ten weeks, Forbort being a complete mystery, and Blueger and Demko both strangely being here-then-gone. Chytil, of course, is anyone's guess, given how concussions play out.
So what's left for Vancouver? Will there be an effort to salvage the season, which in this case means asking some players to please waive their no-move clauses? Will there be a change in management or coaching? Will Aquilini - the owner who has openly defied every opportunity to rebuild - finally talk about rebuilding? At this point, who frikkin' knows?
Looking forward to the next Goldeneyes game, though. And can't wait for the MLS Conference Final!
If you turned that game off after the first period, you might be surprised by that final score. But for all the bounces the Canucks got in this game, they definitely earned them, battling back from two goals down thanks to a final 30 minutes where they went toe to toe with a good Tampa squad.
Vancouver Canucks (9-9-2) vs. Florida Panthers (9-8-1)
Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise, FL
4:00 pm PST; 7:00 pm EST
TV: Sportsnet Pacific
Radio: Sportsnet 650
If you were watching yesterday's game, I wouldn't blame you if you flipped over to watch the Grey Cup after seeing that first period. Apart from the initial rush of seeing Conor Garland take down Darren Raddysh in this season's most unexpected fight, there wasn't anything to feel good about, apart from Kevin Lankinen holding the fort. The Lightning threw everything they had at the Canucks in the first, and damn near came away empty handed if not for the Nikita Kucherov goal with less than a minute to go in the frame. The Canucks looked outmatched, and it felt like we were in for a long afternoon.
But from the second period on, the Canucks were as good, if not better than the Bolts, and after going down 2-0, started the comeback halfway through the second, with Jake DrBrusk hammering home an Elias Pettersson rebound, and it felt like, if they could just get one more, they might have a shot.
Cue the craziest third period of the season.
The Canucks exploded for five goals after mustering just seven shots through the first forty minutes. With Tampa's backup in net, that old proverb of "just get some pucks on him" turned out to be the way to go, as deflections and bounces led to three goals in 1:40 to give the Canucks a 4-2 lead. It looked like the Lightning had made it 4-3, but a crafty Canucks challenge on the play, alleging that the puck had been played with a high stick and should have been blown down, overturned the goal. It was the first time they'd used the new rule this season, and it probably killed any hope of a Tampa comeback. After Mackenzie MacEachern got his first as a Canuck to make it 5-2, the fans started heading for the exits.
What an absolute monster game from Quinn Hughes. After missing the Carolina game, that gave Hughes 7 assists in his last two games. Kevin Lankinen was outstanding, shutting the door after the second goal and giving them the chance to pull off the comeback. And another strong performance from Elias Pettersson, continuing his strong two way play along with a two assist night.
Naturally, there was a downside, and that was Conor Garland not returning to the game after his tilt with Raddysh, yet another challenge for the Canucks as they prepare to take on the Florida Panthers tonight. Fortunately, they at least have a body to put in the lineup as David Kampf, signed by the Canucks last week.
Kampf is a center, and while he's not the center they need, he's gonna do a couple things that are going to help. First, he can take defensive zone draws and take some of the pressure off EP40 to take all of the draws.
Second, he's going to make the utterly embarrassing penalty kill better (though credit where credit is due, the PK came up big yesterday, especially in the second).
As far as the Panthers, they have, like the Canucks and Lightning, been struggling with injuries to key players this season, and so far aren't looking quite like the two time defending champs they are. That's not any reason at all to take them lightly, though, and this is still gonna be a hell of a tough night for the Canucks in the back end of a back to back. That being said, the Canucks have performed well in back to backs so far this season, and with the confidence boost of two strong games on this road trip so far, maybe they actually can return to Vancouver with five of a possible six points?
LINEUPS
From the nhl dot com thingy...
Canucks projected lineup
Evander Kane -- Elias Pettersson -- Kiefer Sherwood
Brock Boeser -- Max Sasson -- Jake DeBrusk
Drew O'Connor -- Aatu Raty -- Arshdeep Bains
Mackenzie MacEachern -- David Kampf -- Lukas Reichel
Quinn Hughes -- Filip Hronek
Marcus Pettersson -- Tyler Myers
Elias Nils Pettersson -- Tom Willander
Kevin Lankinen
Jiri Patera
Scratched: P.O Joseph, Linus Karlsson
Injured: Thatcher Demko (lower body), Conor Garland (undisclosed), Filip Chytil (concussion protocol), Teddy Blueger (lower body), Nils Hoglander (lower body), Derek Forbort (undisclosed)
Panthers projected lineup
Mackie Samoskevich -- Anton Lundell -- Brad Marchand
Carter Verhaeghe -- Evan Rodrigues -- Sam Reinhart
A.J. Greer -- Sam Bennett -- Jesper Boqvist
Noah Gregor -- Cole Schwindt -- Luke Kunin
Gustav Forsling -- Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola -- Seth Jones
Uvis Balinskis -- Jeff Petry
Sergei Bobrovsky
Daniil Tarasov
Scratched: Donovan Sebrango
Injured: Eetu Luostarinen (lower body), Matthew Tkachuk (lower body), Tomas Nosek (knee), Jonah Gadjovich (upper body), Dmitry Kulikov (shoulder)
So it's Kampf with MacEachern and Reichel, and Arshdeep Bains will be with O'Connor and Raty. Karlsson will sit tonight, and Max Sasson continues to get rewarded for his efforts seeing second line duties between DeBrusk and Brock Boeser. It looks like Lankinen might go in goal tonight, and Florida, after seeing Tampa's backup get lit up last night, isn't taking any chances, as they'll start Sergei Bobrovsky. And as expected, the Canucks sent Victor Mancini down to Abbotsford, which I am sure the AHL Canucks will gladly welcome him back.
GAME DAY CHATTER
GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN
Released on this day in 1986, 'Darkness Descends' was the album that put Dark Angel up with many of the upper echelon thrash contenders. Just an absolute beast of a record, with relentless riffing and drumming from the legendary Gene Hoglan make this one a must listen. Here's the title track for ya!
Enjoy the game, folks. Fuck fascism! Go Canucks Go!
The Vancouver Canucks and David Kämpf agreed to terms on a one-year, $1.1 million deal. Is he worth it?
There was plenty of talk before the 2025-26 season started about finding centres for the team. With Pius Suter pricing himself out of the market (despite Jim Rutherford's retroactive claims) and the VERY questionable health of Filip Chytil, more was needed. It wasn't a secret. Heck, one of the more famous quotes being replayed now is from Rutherford himself:
“It'll be expensive, but it'll also be very expensive not to get one. We're going to be open to do whatever it takes.”
Nothing like being your own self-fulfilling prophet.
Two names that came up in the idle speculation were Lukas Reichel and David Kämpf. Both were rejected for various reasons, but mostly because they weren't top-six centres. Vancouver wasn't great lower in the lineup, but the addition really needed to be at the top. They weren't going to move the needle if Chytil got injured.
Life moves fast on ya some days.
Lukas Reichel hasn't worked out, unfortunately, but was an experiment worth trying. A young guy who played some centre, even if he was used more on the wing. Even without the points yet, he does bring plenty of speed that much of the team doesn't have. In less desperate times, his lack of scoring wouldn't carry as much weight.
So in comes the next "other option" from Summer: David Kämpf. He hasn't played an NHL game this season, and only four in the AHL with a single assist to show for it. He's probably the team's *deep breath* second-line centre whenever he gets into the lineup. He was suspended on November 2nd for not reporting to the Marlies, so he may need to get up to speed before joining the club. I'll be a bit surprised if he gets ice time in Florida.
Okay. I tend towards a much more optimistic view of the Canucks than many in this market because I find pessimism boring. I freely admit there have been days this season where that has been more difficult than others. But today isn't one of those days. Here's why.
Kämpf has spent a lot of time there, both in Chicago and Toronto. He is a faceoff guy and a defensive specialist, which is very welcome on the team with the worst PK in the league. There are some small differences in coaching styles around the league, but penalty kills are pretty much about what you give up. It won't take him long to pick up the subtleties.
Seriously, anything has to be better than the results they're getting now. Are there EBUG penalty killers?
Kämpf is, fortunately, closer to Aatu Räty's size than Lukas Reichel's. He stands 6'2" and plays at around 195 pounds - it's always a grain of salt with NHL measurements, but that beats Reichel by 25 pounds. If the new guy is going to go up against the opponent's best, he's going to have a lot to stand up to. This really highlights the other side of bringing Kämpf in now: helping Elias Pettersson the Forward(tm).
Many fans have been critical of Pettersson the Forward's results so far this season, and fair enough. While he has five points in his past four games, his point totals really need to hit point-per-game levels for him to earn his team-leading contract. I've written before about what I think he will be, and I stand by it. But he needs help out there right now, and I think Kämpf can provide it.
Pettersson the Forward(tm) is taking the vast majority of Vancouver's faceoffs right now. Nearly half of those are in the defensive end of the ice. According to Hockey Reference, he's at his worst Corsi of his career - and it's still 51.8%. As sweet as his short-handed goal was against Carolina, I'd rather he play fewer minutes a man down. Let Kämpf take some of the hards off his plate.
Some of this is going to be self-interest, obviously. But plenty of other teams were interested in Kämpf's services after Toronto cut him. Not enough to lose assets for him at $2.4 million, but at less than half that, and for free? That's a sweet deal!
Why he chose Vancouver, we'll never really know. But there are a few safe guesses.
First, he can resurrect his career. Kämpf hit a low point last season, scoring just five times with 13 points in 59 games. Even a defensive specialist needs to contribute a bit more to the bottom line than that. Getting sent to the AHL when he still had two years on his contract was a wake-up call, and he didn't much like hearing it. So why is Vancouver the right choice?
The Canucks are desperately short-staffed at centre, right now and in overall depth. Players will be coming back at some point, but even when they do, Kämpf has a good chance of keeping his spot. Kudos to the work Max Sasson has put in, but both he and Reichel are more likely wingers in the NHL. That's not a bad thing at all, but if Teddy Blueger and (deo volente) Filip Chytil return, Kämpf will have spent weeks making his case.
Like so many desperate moves, this one doesn't really raise the ceiling for the team. But right now, that's okay. What we're looking at right now is probably the team's floor, and he does raise that.
While one or two players still don't seem to have gotten the memo *cough*Evander Kane*cough* the Canucks are working their asses off out there. The effort isn't missing, but the talent is. That's just what happens when the top guys on a thin team are out of the lineup. If this is a low as it gets, that's not a bad base to launch from when the talent gets back.
Jonathan Lekkerimäki will play 35 minutes a night* in Abbotsford for a few games before returning to Vancouver. Nils Höglander is out of his walking boot. Blueger is skating, though with a non-contact jersey at the last practice before this roadie. Derek Forbort, speaking of the penalty kill, is scheduled to be back in another two weeks, but "undisclosed" injuries are always a mystery.
Right now, the high-concern injuries are to Quinn Hughes and Thatcher Demko, but there isn't much Kämpf can do there. We'll see how Jiří Patera does, but even he is taking the place of the injured Nikita Tolopilo.
Can David Kämpf help keep the Canucks afloat until reinforcements arrive? In three words:
He can't hurt.
*Perhaps a slight exaggeration, but we'll see. They're missing a lot of players right now, too.
The bickering, finger-pointing, internet yelling has hit Defcon 2 as the Canucks another stretch of time without their #1 goalie, Thatcher Demko. The meele increased once President Jimmy Rathernot said that a rebuild was out of the question for this team. The inferences that grew from his comments we like watching a chain reaction.
(This is not a chain reaction....but it serves a purpose!)
Besides the possibility of stupid money being thrown at him by Vancouver, I'm not sure why Quinn would stay in this boxed wildfire?
"But...but.....this team, when healthy....on paper....or video game console, can be a playoff team!!"
Unfortunately, the games that count are not played on either.
This team has no point per game players.....this team is dead last on the penalty kill....the powerplay is in the bottom half of the league. This is why the team will only be a .500 club. Injuries to the starting lineup are not easy to replace on this team. For all the talk of a Calder Cup win, there is a huge difference for an AHL player to score in that league versus an AHL player to score in the NHL.
This little 3 game road trip might just create that separation in the standings that the idea of the playoffs might be a fleeting thought before American Thanksgiving. I am already kind of viewing this year to be like the last year of Willie D. No expectations of success, but fear of a future without Quinn in it.
Of course, if they find a way to sneak a couple wins out, I might have to change my tune. But the Eeyore in me is just waiting for the next visit of the injury fairies
LINEUPS
Canucks projected lineup
Evander Kane -- Elias Pettersson -- Conor Garland
Brock Boeser -- Lukas Reichel -- Kiefer Sherwood
Drew O'Connor -- Aatu Raty -- Jake DeBrusk
Arshdeep Bains -- Max Sasson -- Linus Karlsson
Quinn Hughes -- Filip Hronek
Marcus Pettersson -- Tyler Myers
Elias Pettersson -- Tom Willander
Kevin Lankinen
Jiri Patera
Scratched: P.O. Joseph, Mackenzie MacEachern
Injured: Thatcher Demko (lower body), Victor Mancini (undisclosed), Filip Chytil (concussion protocol), Teddy Blueger (lower body), Nils Hoglander (lower body), Derek Forbort (undisclosed)
Hurricanes projected lineup
Andrei Svechnikov -- Sebastian Aho -- Seth Jarvis
Nikolaj Ehlers -- Logan Stankoven -- Jackson Blake
William Carrier -- Jordan Staal -- Jordan Martinook
Taylor Hall -- Jesperi Kotkaniemi -- Eric Robinson
Shayne Gostisbehere -- Sean Walker
K’Andre Miller -- Joel Nystrom
Alexander Nikishin -- Mike Reilly
Pyotr Kochetkov
Brandon Bussi
Scratched: Frederik Andersen, Mark Jankowski, Gavin Bayreuther
Injured: Jalen Chatfield (upper body), Jaccob Slavin (lower body), Charles-Alexis Legault (hand)
Status report
Hughes participated in the Canucks' optional morning skate Friday after not practicing Thursday and will be a game-time decision; he briefly left in the second period of a 5-3 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday favoring his left arm; he returned four minutes later and remained in the game. ... Demko will not dress; the goalie left following the first period Tuesday. ... O'Connor took part in the skate and is expected to play after missing practice Thursday with an illness.
GAMEDAY CHATTER
PEP TALK:
JR says it's not his fault that they couldn't manage the JT/EP40 situation. It wasn't management arrogance that kept them from bringing Suter back - just miscommunication. So... no worries... Nucks management geniuses are on track to keeping the Nucks mediocre without the tedium of a full rebuild. McKenna who?
Since the Nucks are fading away into league irrelevance thanks to the great work of the Faeries and Nucks management brilliance - JB's legacy is longer than hoped - here's to an irrelevant tune from a weird psy-genre with a simple message to Nucks fans: Run Away. From paying Franny - it's the only way to fix this team.
Fuck Fascism, Enshitification of sports streaming and enjoy the game!
A back and forth game addled by some of the worst officiating we've seen in a while, but the Canucks were able to get it done on Hockey Fights Cancer on a late third period beauty from Brock Boeser. Tonight, a tougher test as the Avs are in town, fresh off of embarassing McDavid and the Oilers on HNIC.
Vancouver Canucks (8-8-0) vs. Colorado Avalanche (9-1-5)
Rogers Arena, Vancouver, BC
7:00 pm PST; 10:00 pm EST
TV: Sportsnet Pacific
Radio: Sportsnet 650
There were times where the Canucks looked like they were starting to figure it out. In a high energy, back and forth game against a young, speedy Columbus team, they were rolling with the punches, and unlike some of the losses this season, didn't let this one slip away. That's not to say it couldn't have happened. At least one softie from Kevin Lankinen, who overall had a pretty solid night, helped to make this game closer than it needed to be. The Penalty kill was good last night, and Lankinen was a big part of that. The Canucks PP meanwhile didn't get as many chances as they should have, as last night's officiating crew just flat out embarrassed themselves by letting some calls go that were downright blatant.
Just absolute bush league shit by Wood on that one, driving Myers' head into the glass with his forearm, in plain view of the official. This after tossing Olivier for that chickenshit hit in the numbers on Elias Pettersson (D), which resulted in a five minute major and game misconduct.
Okay, so some positives from last night. Jake DeBrusk scoring at 5 on 5 was good, and he seems to have some chemistry building with Drew O'Connor, who had another solid outing last night. And with Lukas Reichel finally getting his first point as a Canuck, that line might take some pressure off the the EP40, Kane and Garland line, who, in spite of Kane bumbling his way through another one, were good last night. Quinn Hughes looked more like his old self last night than we'd seen so far this season, even if the best dangle of the night was Tyler Myers' majestic foray to the net to set up the Conor Garland goal.
Tonight's challenge is a whole different beast, however.
The Colorado Avalanche are one of the early favorites for a run at the Cup, and last night, they showed why the Edmonton Oilers absolutely should not be, stomping a mud hole in McDavid and Draisaitl in a 9-1 embarrassment in Edmonton. So should we expect more of the same tonight? Maybe... or maybe not?
There wasn't a lot that went right for the Canucks last season, but one thing that did was their season series against the Avs. The Canucks came away with the sweep, and are 6-3-1 in their last ten meetings. Sometimes, you just run into teams you can't solve, and for the Avs, it might be the Canucks. Now, obviously the goaltending situation factors heavily in this. Is it going to be a) a tired Kevin Lankinen, who faced 32 shots last night; b) Jiri Patera, who is the Canucks 4th or 5th string goaltender; or c) Thatcher Demko, who is maybe injured or tired or some combination of both?
The other good thing, is that because he played last night, the Avs are giving Scott Wedgewood the night off, and going with Mackenzie Blackwood, who has just an OT loss so far this season, all of the wins going to Wedgewood so far. After the hype of last night's contest, which turned out to be completely unfounded, maybe the Avs are due for a let down game? And with the Canucks pulling off the win after trailing twice in that game, maybe they've got some confidence heading into tonight?
LINEUPS
The nhl dot com thingy says:
Avalanche projected lineup
Artturi Lehkonen -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Martin Necas
Ross Colton -- Brock Nelson -- Valeri Nichushkin
Gabriel Landeskog -- Jack Drury -- Victor Olofsson
Parker Kelly -- Zakhar Bardakov -- Gavin Brindley
Devon Toews -- Cale Makar
Josh Manson -- Brent Burns
Ilya Solovyov -- Sam Malinski
Mackenzie Blackwood
Scott Wedgewood
Scratched: Danil Gushchin
Injured: Samuel Girard (upper body), Joel Kiviranta (lower body), Logan O’Connor (hip surgery)
Canucks projected lineup
Evander Kane -- Elias Pettersson -- Conor Garland
Jake DeBrusk -- Lukas Reichel -- Drew O'Connor
Brock Boeser -- Aatu Raty -- Kiefer Sherwood
Arshdeep Bains -- Max Sasson -- Linus Karlsson
Quinn Hughes -- Filip Hronek
Marcus Pettersson -- Tyler Myers
Elias Nils Pettersson -- Tom Willander
Kevin Lankinen
Jiri Patera
Scratched: P.O. Joseph, Mackenzie MacEachern
Injured: Thatcher Demko (preventative maintenance), Victor Mancini (undisclosed), Filip Chytil (concussion protocol), Jonathan Lekkerimaki (upper body), Teddy Blueger (lower body), Nils Hoglander (lower body), Derek Forbort (undisclosed)
I would expect we see Blueger, Lekkerimaki and Mancini all return to the lineup at some point this season, though it could also be that Mancini heads to Abbotsford for a spell, given how well Tom Willander has played since getting called up.
GAME DAY CHATTER
Well, gonna need the defensive effort of the year tonight, to give Lankinen all the help he needs.
Bridgeman was a star for the WCHL Victoria Cougars in junior, before a solid NHL career that came to an end with three seasons in Vancouver. Our condolences to the Bridgeman family.
GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN
From the frozen steppes of Mongolia come UUHAI, a seven piece band that incorporate Mongolian folk music with metal, sung completely in Mongolian. From their upcoming album 'Human Herds', this is 'Uuhai', and it's out in January on Napalm Records.
Enjoy the game. Smash fascism! Go Canucks Go!
With another extra time win, the Canucks return home after pulling in 4 of a possible six points. They kick off a four game home stand with a visit from Connor Bedard and the Blackhawks, who appear to be falling back to earth after a solid start to the season.
Vancouver Canucks (7-7-0) vs. Nashville Predators (5-5-3)
Rogers Arena, Vancouver, BC
7:00 pm PST; 10:00 pm EST
TV: Sportsnet Pacific
Radio: Sportsnet 650
After the way the Canucks lost their last visit to Nashville, you knew they'd come out with a little more fire, and for most of that game, they looked... dominant? They certainly controlled a lot of the play, in a way we haven't seen much this season. And they likely would have escaped that one in regulation, if the officials hadn't gotten so involved in the outcome.
Serving up a power play to Nashville on a phantom high stick by Evander Kane, the Preds were able to take advantage of the floundering Canucks PK to tie the game with less than four minutes remaining. Sure, the Canucks should have killed off the penalty, but the call is just so obviously a complete embellishment by Luke Evangelista, that we'd probably still be pissed off about it. I mean, I am loathe to give Evander Kane any credit, as he's taken a number of penalties this season which have led to goals and losses, but c'mon, man. That is not a high stick, and the fact that Evangelista was not fined by the league since then for embellishment, just shows you how little they care about it.
Thankfully, some things are evergreen, like Brock Boeser owning the Nashville Predators. Juuse Saros must see that flow in his nightmares, as once again, Boeser crushed the souls of the Preds and their fans with a last second dagger, and it was a beauty. Fantastic work by him and Elias Pettersson to get that done with just 10 seconds left in the OT, moving their record back to .500 and their OT/SO record to 4-0.
Tonight, though... it's a trap. The Chicago Blackhawks got off to a bad start buy losing five straight to start the season. After a stretch where they won 4 of 5 including victories over Utah, Anaheim and Tampa, they've since lost 3 straight and 4 of their last 5. So desperate for a win, after dropping road games in Winnipeg, Edmonton and Seattle with just one point to show for it, they will be trying to bump that slump against a Canucks team that's still banged up and has a lot of travel miles on them already. Another thing that worries me? The Canucks record against the Hawks of late. They've won 10 straight against Chicago, and it just screams like it's gonna be one of those nights where the Canucks let one slip out of their grasp.
The problem the Hawks have is after a couple players not named Bedard, no one else is scoring. And getting some good goaltending from Spencer Knight so far this season might keep them in this, but it's similar to the issues the Canucks face: If they don't get a number of people going, this season's gonna be another disappointment.
LINEUPS
Here's what we found on the nhl dot com thingy:
Blackhawks projected lineup
Ryan Greene -- Connor Bedard -- Andre Burakovsky
Teuvo Teravainen -- Frank Nazar -- Tyler Bertuzzi
Ryan Donato -- Colton Dach -- Ilya Mikheyev
Oliver Moore -- Nick Foligno
Alex Vlasic -- Sam Rinzel
Matt Grzelcyk -- Connor Murphy
Wyatt Kaiser -- Artyom Levshunov
Louis Crevier
Spencer Knight
Arvid Soderblom
Scratched: Sam Lafferty
Injured: Laurent Brossoit (hip), Jason Dickinson (upper body)
Canucks projected lineup
Evander Kane -- Elias Pettersson -- Conor Garland
Jake DeBrusk -- Lukas Reichel -- Brock Boeser
Drew O'Connor -- Aatu Raty -- Kiefer Sherwood
Arshdeep Bains -- Max Sasson -- Linus Karlsson
Quinn Hughes -- Tyler Myers
Marcus Pettersson -- Filip Hronek
Elias Nils Pettersson -- Tom Willander
Kevin Lankinen
Thatcher Demko
Scratched: P.O. Joseph, Mackenzie MacEachern
Injured: Victor Mancini (undisclosed), Filip Chytil (concussion protocol), Jonathan Lekkerimaki (upper body), Teddy Blueger (lower body), Nils Hoglander (lower body), Derek Forbort (undisclosed)
The big news tonight is that Conor Garland will return to the lineup after sitting out the entire road trip for the Canucks. Teddy Blueger is returning to practice, and Jonathan Lekkerimaki isn't far behind. With Jason Dickinson out of the lineup for the Hawks, the addressing of his chickenshit hit from behind will have to wait til the next time these teams meet, but given Tyler Bertuzzi's histrionics after the loss a few weeks ago, I wouldn't be surprised for him to be cranking the idiot dial to '11' tonight.
GAME DAY CHATTER
GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN
Well, with ol' DICK Cheney shufflin' off this mortal coil to take up residence in eternal damnation, I thought it was fitting to bring out this MINISTRY classic from back when he was forever making the world an angrier, more dangerous place. Rot in hell, you bastard.
Enjoy the game, folks. Fuck fascism! Go Canucks Go!
Eleven games remain for the Vancouver Canucks between now and November 27th. Writing this up before the Red Wings play in Anaheim tonight, Vancouver sits two points out of a playoff spot. According to modern mythology, closing that two-point gap before American Thanksgiving will mean everything to their playoff chances.
Really?
Ever since the theory was popularized by Elliotte Friedman, stories about NHL teams and their playoff odds have been tied to the late November holiday. And it's not an unreasonable thing: in the past twenty years, of the 272 teams to be in a playoff spot, 209 kept it at the finish. That's well over 75%, which is a substantial relationship - but not as important as it sounds.
It would be a surprise if what we were talking about was a random number generator picking which 16 of 32 teams got in. But it isn't, obviously enough. By the time late November hits, the season is nearly two months old, and teams have played over 20 games each. They'll have played against a variety of teams from each conference. It's a good sample size to draw from. If you're good enough to be in the top half of the league after 20-ish games, you probably deserve it.
The assumption is that the teams that get in or drop out are very close to the cutoff line. One or two points out is well within the margin of error with another sixty games to go. Last season, though, two Canadian teams rocketed from eighth and tenth to snag the wild card spots in the East. In the West, the Blues had an incredible run to snag the final wild card slot, inching out the Flames.
Much has been made of the fact that the Canucks have used 28 skaters in just a dozen games this season. Long and short of it, that's not a great sign. Again, using last season's risers and fallers as our examples, there seems to be some correlation.
Ottawa: 26 skaters playing 10 or more games
Montreal: 24 skaters playing 10 or more games
St Louis: 25 skaters playing 10 or more games
Vancouver, one of the teams that dropped out of a playoff spot, had 31 skaters playing 10 or more games. When they made their surprise playoff run in 2023-24, the Canucks used just 24. Boston, another faller, had 31. The Rangers, 29.
At a quick glance, it looks like injuries play a substantial role in a team's success. Even if it isn't a star player injured, losing enough middle-six or second-pair players will hurt, too. Calling up replacements from the AHL to fill NHLers' skates is a drop in talent, after all. Otherwise, they would have started the season with the big club.
But if we look again at the 2024-25 Rangers - random example - two of their skaters who "missed" a lot of games are J.T. Miller and Filip Chytil. Those are, as we well remember, two players who were traded for each other. The dysfunction of the team led to each of them playing half(-ish) a season in Manhattan, not injuries.
At the end of the season, being a bad team can cause a larger-than-usual number of skaters, rather than the reverse. Failure was already happening, so new players were brought up or traded for, either in an effort to get the team moving or in acceptance of a miserable year. That's not the case when you're only a dozen games in, though.
The Abbotsford Canucks are having a rough time of it. They currently sit dead last in the 10-team Pacific Division with just two wins and a shootout loss after nine games. They've used ten rookies this year, and are missing their top line from last season. Actually, they're missing their top line, three of their top defenders, and a handful of other forwards from last year's team.
There is some turnover for a Calder-winning team, as free agents get better offers elsewhere and successful players get promoted. But players don't age out like they do in junior or college competition, so there is some stability there. Or, there usually is, anyway. Abbotsford has suffered injuries to Jett Woo and Guillaume Brisebois, devastating their blue line. But Victor Mancini, Tom Willander, and Kiril Kudryavtsev are all with Vancouver right now, too.
Sure, Jonathan Lekkeimäki is injured, which hurts them. But their parent club also promoted four of their top forwards and keeps stealing others out of necessity. How is the parent club doing with injuries? Ask Abbotsford.
Vancouver losing Chytil and Teddy Blueger for unknown lengths of time prompted the "sure, why not?" acquisition of Lukas Reichel, but that's not enough. I like him fine, as he gives the team some speed and a bit of skill, but Chytil is the better player - when he plays. As for the rest, well, let's just say there aren't normally four waiver-exempt defencemen on any NHL squad.
It's not looking good right now. The Canucks are currently two points and four teams back of a playoff spot. Their next eleven games are split more or less evenly, with five on the road and six at home. And those teams look plenty tough, so getting six wins from them with this beat-up club to stay at .500 will be a challenge. But it's not entirely bleak.
Players are going to start trickling back to the club over the next month. Expecting them to be at full speed right away is a lot to ask, but there isn't much choice. Chytil remains the Canucks' biggest challenge, given his unique circumstance. He may not play again, possibly for the season, possibly ever.
But Blueger will return, as will Conor Garland, Nils Höglander, Lekkerimäki, Quinn Hughes, Derek Forbort... Other players will get injured in this compressed schedule year, but by the end of November, we will be past the worst of it. Well, until January's roadie madness, but even a slight easing of the schedule will give the Canucks some time to recover.
Coach Adam Foote has so far resisted the temptation to overplay Thatcher Demko. If he can keep that discipline, and the rest of the team can keep afloat, there can be better times ahead. We can hope.
I suppose there isn't a better time for the Elias Pettersson we'd hoped to see returning as J.T. Miller returns to Vancouver for the first time since the trade. And with Miller and the Rangers struggling mightily, you know this will see both teams going all out to get the victory.
Vancouver Canucks (5-5-0) vs. New York Rangers (3-5-2)
Rogers Arena, Vancouver, BC
7:00 pm PST; 10:00 pm EST
TV: Sportsnet 360
Radio: Sportsnet 650
While there might be more important games down the road as the season plays out, this entire season so far has just been killing time until this one. The return of J.T. Miller for the first time since he was traded to the Rangers, thus putting an end to a year long saga that dragged the team into the gutter and the bottom of the standings has been one of the most anticipated games not just on the Canucks calendar, but in the entire NHL. And while we know there's not going to be much of an audience thanks to the Toronto Blue Jays playing Game Four of the World Series, you'll probably want to set the PVR for this one.
Elias Pettersson, after a bit of a slow start in the first couple games, has seemingly returned to his superstar form, playing with a level of confidence we haven't seen in some time. He's been making plays and cranking one-timers into the net like he used to, and with the insane number of injuries the Canucks find themselves having to deal with already, getting him going is exactly what they need.
Meanwhile, Miller and the Rangers are floundering, with just one win in their last seven games. Miller has put up 2G 4A for 6 points, two less than Petey's 3G 5A, and he's averaging three more minutes of ice time per night over Pettersson. Add in the 23 blocked shots so far, and it's clear that the struggles of one of these guys should be getting talked about a lot more, and it ain't the Swede.
The only thing keeping the Rangers from being the absolute worst team in the NHL right now is their goaltending, as both Igor Shesterkin and Jonathan Quick are performing well, they're just not getting any offensive support from the Rangers, who have scored the second least number of goals so far this year. Artemi Panarin and Adam Fox are tied for the Rangers scoring lead with seven points, which is the same number that Conor Garland has put up in the last five games. Given the expectations for the Rangers, it's a little shocking.
If the Rangers have a hope in this one, after getting stomped by a not very good Calgary team the other night, it's taking advantage of a Canucks team whose injury woes continue to mount. Already without Quinn Hughes and Derek Forbort on the back end, they played most of that contest against the Oilers without Victor Mancini, and there are fears he could be gone for a while. Hughes is unlikely to play tonight as well, so that means continuing to lean heavily on Filip Hronek, who has done rather well in Hughes' absence, dating back to last season.
LINEUPS
The nhl dot com thingy has yet again graced us with a questionably accurate depiction of what tonight should show us in terms of lineups:
Rangers projected lineup
Artemi Panarin -- Mika Zibanejad -- Will Cuylle
Conor Sheary -- J.T. Miller -- Alexis Lafreniere
Juuso Parssinen -- Noah Laba -- Taylor Raddysh
Adam Edstrom -- Sam Carrick -- Jonny Brodzinski
Vladislav Gavrikov -- Adam Fox
Carson Soucy -- Will Borgen
Urho Vaakanainen -- Braden Schneider
Jonathan Quick
Igor Shesterkin
Scratched: Brennan Othmann, Matthew Robertson
Injured: Vincent Trocheck (upper body), Matt Rempe (upper body)
Canucks projected lineup
Jake DeBrusk -- Elias Pettersson -- Conor Garland
Evander Kane -- Lukas Reichel -- Brock Boeser
Drew O'Connor -- Aatu Raty -- Kiefer Sherwood
Arshdeep Bains -- Max Sasson -- Linus Karlsson
Marcus Pettersson -- Filip Hronek
Elias Nils Pettersson -- Tyler Myers
P.O Joseph -- Tom Willander
Thatcher Demko
Kevin Lankinen
Scratched: Kirill Kudryavtsev, Nils Aman
Injured: Victor Mancini (undisclosed), Quinn Hughes (lower body), Filip Chytil (concussion protocol), Jonathan Lekkerimaki (upper body), Teddy Blueger (lower body), Nils Hoglander (lower body), Derek Forbort (undisclosed)
Yeah, that's a lot of bodies. I suppose if there's a bright light, it's that Matt Rempe is out for the Rangers, and won't be able to do one of the bullshit hits he's become known for and add to the Canucks IR totals.
GAME DAY CHATTER
If the allegations are true, this is pretty awful. The SA problem in the hockey world needs to be addressed.
GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN
You know me, I love me a good cover tune. So how's about some PENNYWISE ripping through 'Ace of Spades'? Lemmy would be proud.
Enjoy the game. Fuck fascists and the Rangers. Go Canucks Go!
All in all, not a completely disastrous roadtrip, but the injury gods laugh at this team yet again. Back home to play another ridiculous back to back (3 games in 4 nights yet again), starting with a very good Montreal squad.
Vancouver Canucks (4-4-0) vs. Montreal Canadiens (6-3-0)
Rogers Arena, Vancouver, BC
4:00 pm PST; 7:00 pm EST
TV: CBC
Radio: Sportsnet 650
Back home, and it simply doesn't get any easier. Three games in four nights (well, four in six if you count Thursday in Nashville) and it's against the Habs, the Oilers tomorrow night, and J.T. Miller and the Rangers. Three highly emotional games, three must wins for the Canucks if they hope to keep pace early on.
The start of the trip went well, with big wins in Dallas and Chicago back to back, then that stupid morning game in Washington (and doesn't it seem like someone always gets seriously injured when they play these morning games?), before getting shellacked in Pittsburgh, and basically unlucky to get out of Nashville without a point.
They did manage to get player they'd been looking for via the trade route, snagging Lukas Reichel from Chicago for a 2027 4th round pick, which is a nice deal for the Canucks. Though he's been mostly on the left wing during his time in Chicago, Reichel can play centre, and likely will get a look in that position as the Canucks try to re-tool after losing Filip Chytil and Teddy Blueger on that roadtrip.
And while there's no need to set off alarm bells just yet, the season being less than ten games in, small sample sizes and all that, the fact the Canucks sit dead last in scoring is concerning to say the least. On paper, this team should be scoring more than they are. And having lost one of the guys being counted on for his offensive contributions already this year, it's only going to intensify the pressure on Elias Pettersson.
It was pretty clear Pettersson was one of the better forwards on this trip, but that's just not enough right now, and if the Canucks don't want to find themselves having to dig out of a hole early on this season, he needs to start putting the puck in the net. That goes for Jake DeBrusk and Evander Kane, too. Kane's been exactly what we thought we were getting: the odd hit, lots of yapping, a ton of penalties, and embarrassing off ice behaviour.
Fortunately, Thatcher Demko's played outstanding so far this season, but the Canucks are going to need to start producing some goal support for him and Kevin Lankinen and stop wasting good performances in goal. They're also going to need to start garnering some Bettman points in these losses, and have a chance to actually put a little distance between themselves and the Oilers with wins on both nights and a little help from the Kraken tonight against Edmonton.
Tonight's gonna be a tough one, as this young Habs squad, likely pissed off after getting jobbed by some shockingly bad officiating in Edmonton the other night, will be looking to take it out on a Canucks team trying to rebound from a couple frustrating losses of their own.With this year's Calder trophy frontrunner Ivan Demidov, Lane Hutson, Cole Caufield, and Nick Suzuki, this is a team that has a ton of talent, and are off to a solid start so far this year.
LINEUPS
From the ol' nhl dot com doohickey, here's what to expect tonight:
Canadiens projected lineup
Cole Caufield -- Nick Suzuki -- Juraj Slafkovsky
Alex Newhook -- Oliver Kapanen -- Ivan Demidov
Josh Anderson -- Jake Evans -- Brendan Gallagher
Kirby Dach -- Joe Veleno -- Zack Bolduc
Mike Matheson -- Noah Dobson
Jayden Struble -- Lane Hutson
Arber Xhekaj -- Alexander Carrier
Jakub Dobes
Sam Montembeault
Scratched: Marc Del Gaizo, Joshua Roy
Injured: Kaiden Guhle (lower body), Patrik Laine (lower body), David Reinbacher (broken metacarpal)
Canucks projected lineup
Evander Kane -- Elias Pettersson -- Conor Garland
Jake DeBrusk -- Max Sasson -- Brock Boeser
Drew O'Connor -- Aatu Raty -- Kiefer Sherwood
Arshdeep Bains -- Lukas Reichel -- Linus Karlsson
Quinn Hughes -- Filip Hronek
Marcus Pettersson -- Tyler Myers
Elias Pettersson -- P.O Joseph
Thatcher Demko
Kevin Lankinen
Scratched: Tom Willander, Joseph LaBate, Nils Aman
Injured: Filip Chytil (concussion protocol), Jonathan Lekkerimaki (upper body), Teddy Blueger (lower body), Nils Hoglander (lower body), Derek Forbort (undisclosed)
So don't expect too much from Reichel right out of the gate, as it will likely take a couple games for him to acclimatize with his new squad. He's supposed to be here in time, but if not, Nils Aman will be in for him. I thought P.O. Joseph played well against Nashville, so it'll be interesting to see if he can keep it up and hang onto that spot with Forbort out now week to week.
GAME DAY CHATTER
GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN
On deck for you today we've got a band who don't do a lot of cover tunes, but when they do, they absolutely crush, and that's definitely the case with this one from TESTAMENT. From the upcoming 'No Life Til Leather: A Tribute To Metallica's Kill Em All', which also features contributions from MOTORHEAD, RAVEN, DIAMOND HEAD, SAXON, TYGERS OF PAN TANG, and others, this is 'Seek & Destroy'.
Enjoy the game, folks. Fuck fascism! Go Jays Go! Go Canucks Go!
Those of us who are a Certain Age(tm) may remember when John Carpenter's remake of The Thing hit theatres. Justifiably regarded as a horror classic now, at the time it left a lot of viewers disappointed, confused, and even enraged. "What was with that ending?!"
No spoilers for a 40-year-old film, but we're left, at the end, with two survivors. Neither knows if the other is the murderous, shapeshifting creature, or maybe infected, but doesn't know it. So they share a bottle with what is, hopefully, a fellow human. The end.
Filmgoers in the 1980s weren't fans of ambiguity (see also: almost any other 1980s film) and stayed away in droves. Which is a drag because, again, a horror classic. But viewers didn't get the answers they wanted handed to them on a silver platter with a vellum scroll explaining everything.*
So let's talk Elias Pettersson (the forward).
We all know what Elias Pettersson is capable of. Unfortunately, most of us know it by its absence. He has a 100-point season under his belt. He had an 89-point season under his belt. And he has a 66-points in 68 games season under his belt. Then the belt gets a little tight.
In his most recent year, Pettersson finished with a miserable 15 goals and 45 points in 64 games, all three numbers a disappointment. But he did finish strong, getting four goals and ten points in his last ten games. Just as he was getting his game back on a roll, he was injured and missed the last 12 games of the season. There's every reason to think he would have been the Canucks' highest-scoring forward if he remained healthy, but that's in a year nearly everyone else stumbled. So have a grain of salt with the projections.
The question is: what have we seen so far in this season?
He doesn't have the shelter of a J.T. Miller or Bo Horvat working the middle of the ice anymore, so he's going to draw all the attention. Heck, he might not have a Filip Chytil anymore, either. Or a Teddy Blueger, who missed the end of the game against the Capitals.
It's going to sound weird to say, but that shouldn't matter. What we're looking at is how he plays, not just who he plays against.
The biggest issue right now is trying to predict an 82-game season from the first six. There are simply too many variables, including who his teammates will be, to give definite answers there. What we can do is see what's happened so far, and it looks like a tale of two halves.
We can really cut it to "first three/second three" with the start of this road trip being the divider. In two at home and one off in Edmonton, Pettersson has been inconsistent. In every post-game conversation, reviewers will mention "flashes of the old Petey" or a specific play or two that caught their eye. But he was never The Man in the game. Quite the opposite, really, with never standing out.
In those first three games, he managed a minuscule three shots through to the net, one per game, and just one assist. He did protect the puck well, but didn't do much to really earn more than his 16 minutes or so of ice time. He didn't inspire fear in opposing coaches. The constant threat wasn't there.
In the more recent three, though, he's made a solid pairing with Conor Garland. When the duo have lined up with either Evander Kane or Drew O'Connor, chances to score have emerged. Even including their most recent match against the Capitals, with a tired and wildly undermanned forward group, Pettersson made his mark.
The post-game conversation has switched from "occasional flashes" to "he made that play work". He's intercepting passes, breaking up opposing rushes, finding his teammates more easily. The other phrase you started to hear was that he was snakebit. Doing the right thing, just unlucky not to score. Which is a heck of a lot better than not having the chances.
Finally getting his first goal in Washington was nice, but better was how he scored it. Finding the empty spot, slowing time, and putting it right where he wanted. Lindgren watched him shoot, but really had no chance. That's an Elias Pettersson kind of goal.
The roadie started in the worst possible way for Pettersson when he deflected a puck into his own net, but since then? It's not that "He's Back!" so much as "He's changed." We just have to see to what.
On what is a vibes-based team, Pettersson is key. His skill is only part of his game. There is a certain arrogance he plays with that goes beyond that. You can feel it when he's on, and it's awesome.
When Quinn Hughes is at the top of his game, you can see him calculating his best next play. There are numbers running over his head while he walks the blue line, taking everything in. He's putting the work in, updating the equations as he collects new information, and it shows. The amazing thing is that it doesn't slow him down in the slightest.
With Pettersson at the top of his game, everything he does feels virtually effortless. That's ridiculous, of course, because some of what he does is throwing himself in front of consecutive Alex Ovechkin shots, and there's nothing easy about that! But it feels like he's done all his work before the game and is prepared for whatever happens next. He trusts that what he does next will be the right play.
Thing is, that doesn't always mean points. Other thing is, that could still be well worth $11.6 million.
My scoring expectations for Elias Pettersson are fairly modest, and also not modest at all. I expect he'll hover at or just below a point-per-game throughout his career. Is THAT worth his massive paycheque? On its own, no. Which is why I expect he'll do more than just score.
One of the most ridiculously underrated stars in the league is retiring after this season. To me, Elias Pettersson could do far worse than follow the career of Anže Kopitar.
Kopitar was halfway through his career by the time he was Pettersson's age. Between the ages of 20 and 26, he scored 182 goals and 485 points in 532 games. Pettersson's numbers are 185 goals and 459 points in 476 games. But Kopitar has always been more than his scoring, picking up two Selke Trophies and three Lady Byngs in the back half of his career.
Those are the kind of numbers Pettersson has the talent to replicate. He also has the defensive chops to be in the Selke conversation in the coming years. He doesn't have the advantage of Kopitar's mass and never will, but that hasn't stopped him from being remarkably effective getting between the puck and his own net.
And before you say that Kopitar's only making $7 million this year, remember he signed a $10 x 8-year deal when he was 29 years old, back in 2016. The salary cap then was $73 million, not 2024's $88 million. Anyone want to argue that he wasn't worth it?
Sure, we need to see more from Pettersson than we have so far this year. Some do say that he's being paid like a star, so he should score like one. I say he should get his points, obviously. But if he's lining up against the opposition's best and beating them regularly, game in and game out? Then he doesn't need 100 points for the team to win. And that will be worth it.
*Not that I'm critical of that approach or anything. Weenies.
